Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon – Saam gwok dzi gin lung se gap (2008)

Directed by: Daniel Lee | 102 minutes | action, drama, war, history | Actors: Andy Lau, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Maggie Q, Vanness Wu, Andy On, Rongguang Yu

Since the advent of digital animation techniques, historical films have made a comeback. Mythical cities, enormous palaces and thousands of large armies can be conjured up on the canvas relatively easily and cheaply. In Hong Kong, the historical action film has never been away, because it formed a good basis for an old-fashioned game of strings. In short, the old martial arts films for which Hong Kong is known and which for a long time could only be made there because this genre was banned in mainland China.

‘Three Kingdoms’ is once again all Hong Kong (co-produced with China and South Korea) and that is both an advantage and a disadvantage. An advantage because the story is again pleasantly sentimental: a lot of slavish loyalty within the feudal pecking order, where honor and self-sacrifice are central, with a good dose of nostalgia and old boys currant bread. Buddhist self-reflection and stubborn perseverance predominate and where in Western similar films the heroes always fight for the preservation of what is, (for freedom and against the invaders) you see in Chinese films that the heroes fight to change something, but often fail to do so.

The disadvantage is that tempo and tone are not always the same. The film is actually too short for an epic: the story, plot twists and character building are a bit rushed through and the emphasis is a bit too much on the fights or reflective moments of silence. This is something that we often encounter in films from Hong Kong where the cinemagoer apparently has less seat and is bored more quickly. Apart from a few spectacular moments, the fights are also a bit disappointing, something that is usually okay with this kind of genre films, but again a lot is lost due to too fast editing and annoying slowing and accelerating effects.

Ultimately, ‘Three Kingdoms’ is a successful and entertaining film, but it still remains some assembly line work from a film industry where feature films are made at a refreshingly fast pace, but where this is sometimes at the expense of the execution. With just a little more rest in the editing, a longer and more elaborate construction and also some more space for the generally fine actors (Andy Lau, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo), ‘Three Kingdoms’ could have been released in Dutch cinemas, instead of straight to video for the European market.